May 11th



330 - Byzantium was renamed "Nova Roma" during a dedication ceremony, but was more popularly referred to as Constantinople.

1502 - Christopher Columbus left for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.

1745 - War of Austrian Succession: At "The Battle of Fontenoy" French forces defeated an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.

1792 - Captain Robert Gray became the first documented Caucasian to visit the Columbia River.

1812 - Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons, London.

1818 - Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway was crowned king of Sweden.

1857 - During "The Indian Mutiny" Indian rebels seized Delhi from the British.

1858 - Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.

1862 - American Civil War: The ironclad "CSS Virginia" was scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.

1864 - American Civil War: At "The Battle of Yellow Tavern", in Virginia, Confederate General Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded.

1867 - Luxembourg gained its independence.

1888 - Born this day: Irving Berlin, composer (d. 1989).

1894 - Pullman Strike: Three thousand "Pullman Palace Car Company" workers went on a wildcat strike in Illinois.

1910 - An act of Congress established "Glacier National Park" in Montana.

1911 - The United States became a member of the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty. (Back to this again, are we?)

1911 - Born this day: Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985).

1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the "Academy" in "Academy Awards") was founded.

1928 - The first analog TV service was inaugurated by WGY, Schenectady, New York.

1934 - "The Dust Bowl": A strong two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl Years in North America.

1942 - William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, was published.

1943 - World War II: American troops invaded "Attu" in the Aleutian Islands to expel occupying Japanese forces.

1944 - World War II: The Allies began a major offensive against the Axis Powers along "The Gustav Line".

1949 - Siam changed its name to Thailand.

1949 - Israel joined the United Nations.

1953 - The Waco Tornado: An F5 tornado hit downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114.

1960 - In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents captured fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, living under the assumed name Ricardo Klement.

1960 - Much to the chagrin of The Vatican, the first contraceptive pill was made available to the public.

1960 - Died this day: John D. Rockefeller, Jr., philanthropist (b. 1874).

1969 - Vietnam War: During "Operation Apache Snow", near the Laos border, American and South Vietnamese forces fought North Vietnamese troops for Ap Bia Mountain (aka Hill 937 or "Hamburger Hill").

1973 - Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg had criminal charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times dismissed.

1976 - The last episode of Marcus Welby, M.D. was aired.

1981 - Died this day: Bob Marley, Jamaican roots rock reggae singer and musician (b. 1945).

1984 - A transit of Earth from Mars took place; no one was there to observe it.

1985 - 56 spectators died when a flash fire struck a football ground during a match in Bradford, England.

1987 - Klaus Barbie went on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.

1987 - The first heart-lung transplant took place, in Baltimore.

1995 - At the UN, in New York City, more than 170 countries decided to extend "The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty" indefinitely and without conditions.

1996 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire was started by improperly stowed oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of an Atlanta-bound ValuJet. Flight 592, a DC-9, crashed into the Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board.

1997 - IBM's "Deep Blue", a chess-playing supercomputer, defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

1998 - Nuclear testing: In the Rajasthan Desert, India conducted its first underground nuclear tests. This violated "The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty" and enraged Pakistan, its rival neighbor who already had nuclear weapons.

1998 - "ZDTV-The Official Technology Television Network" began broadcasting. It lasted six years until the G4techTV Merger when it was turned into a gaming channel.

2004 - The "Stockline Plastics" factory explosion in Glasgow killed nine people.

May 12th

1588 - King Henry III fled Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly entered the city.

1780 - Charleston, South Carolina fell to British forces.

1831 - Edward Smith became the first indicted bank robber in the U.S.

1847 - William Clayton invented the odometer.

1870 - Manitoba entered the Confederation as a Canadian province.

1881 - Tunisia, in North Africa became a French protectorate.

1885 - In the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebelled against the Canadian government.

1888 - Charles Sherrill of the Yale track team became the first runner to use the crouching start for a fast break in a foot race.

1926 - The airship Norge became the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.

1926 - In Britain, a general strike by trade unions ended. The strike began on May 3, 1926.

1932 - The infant body of Charles and Anna Lindbergh's son was found just a few miles from the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, NJ.

1937 - Britain's King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

1940 - The Nazi conquest of France began with the German army crossing Muese River.

1942 - The Soviet Army launched its first major offensive of World War II and took Kharkov in the eastern Ukraine from the German army.

1943 - The Axis forces in North Africa surrendered during World War II.

1948 - The state of Israel and its provisional government was established.

1949 - The Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade.

1950 - The American Bowling Congress abolished its white males-only membership restriction after 34 years.

1957 - A.J. Foyt won his first auto racing victory in Kansas City, MO.

1965 - West Germany and Israel exchanged letters establishing diplomatic relations.

1970 - Ernie Banks, of the Chicago Cubs, hit his 500th home run.

1975 - U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez was seized by Cambodian forces in international waters.

1978 - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.

1982 - In Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who was trying to reach Pope John Paul II.

1992 - Four suspects were arrested in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of the Los Angeles riots.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and named Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin as his successor.

2002 - Former U.S. President Carter arrived in Cuba for a visit with Fidel Castro. It was the first time a U.S. head of state, in or out of office, had gone to the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

May 13th....Friday....uggh!


1607 - Jamestown, Virginia, was settled as a colony of England.

1648 - Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck.

1779 - The War of Bavarian Succession ended.

1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed eleven ships full of convicts on January 18, 1788, at Botany Bay. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.

1821 - The first practical printing press was patented in the U.S. by Samuel Rust.

1846 - The U.S. declared that war already existed with Mexico.

1854 - The first big American billiards match was held at Malcolm Hall in Syracuse, NY.

1861 - Britain declared its neutrality in the American Civil War.

1864 - The Battle of Resaca commenced as Union General Sherman fought towards Atlanta during the American Civil War.

1865 - The last land engagement of the American Civil War was fought at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in far south Texas, more than a month after Gen. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, VA.

1867 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis became a free man after spending two years in prison for his role in the American Civil War.

1873 - Ludwig M. Wolf patented the sewing machine lamp holder.

1880 - Thomas Edison tested his experimental electric railway in Menlo Park.

1888 - Slavery was abolished in Brazil.

1911 - The New York Giants set a major league baseball record. Ten runners crossed home plate before the first out of the game against St. Louis.

1912 - Royal Flying Corps was established in England.

1913 - Igor Sikorsky flew the first four engine aircraft.

1917 - Three peasant children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.

1918 - The first airmail postage stamps were issued with airplanes on them. The denominations were 6, 16, and 24 cents.

1926 - In Warsaw, Joseph Pilsudski had President Wojciechowski arrested.

1927 - "Black Friday" occurred in Germany.

1940 - Winston Churchill made his first speech as the prime minister of Britain.

1949 - The first gas turbine to pump natural gas was installed in Wilmar, AR.

1954 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act.

1958 - French troops took control of Algiers.

1958 - U.S. Vice President Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.

1967 - Mickey Mantle hit his 500th homerun.

1968 - Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in Paris.

1975 - Hailstones the size of tennis balls hit Wenerville, TN.

1981 - Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt.

1982 - The Chicago Cubs became the first major league baseball team to win 8,000 games.

1985 - Tony Perez became the oldest major league baseball player to hit a grand slam home run at the age of 42 and 11 months.

1985 - A confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group's headquarters. 11 people died in the fire that resulted.

1996 - In Bangladesh 600 people were killed by a tornado.

1998 - India did a second round of nuclear tests. The first round had been done 2 days earlier. Within hours the U.S. and Japan imposed tough economic sanctions. India claimed that the tests were necessary to maintain India's national security.

1999 - In Moscow, the impeachment of Russian President Boris Yeltsin began.

May 14th

1264 - King Henry III was captured by his brother in law Simon deMontfort at the Battle of Lewes in France.

1509 - In the Battle of Agnadello, French defeated Venitians in Northern Italy.

1610 - French King Henri IV (Henri de Navarre) was assassinated by a fanatical monk, François Ravillac.

1643 - Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

1727 - Thomas Gainsborough was born. He was an English painter.

1787 - Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.

1796 - The first smallpox vaccination was given by Edward Jenner.

1804 - William Clark set off the famous expedition from Camp Dubois. A few days later, in St. Louis, Meriwether Lewis joined the group. The group was known as the "Corps of Discovery."

1811 - Paraguay gained independence from Spain.

1853 - Gail Borden applied for a patent for condensed milk.

1862 - The chronograph was patented by Adolphe Nicole.

1874 - McGill University and Harvard met at Cambridge, MA, for the first college football game to charge admission.

1878 - The name Vaseline was registered by Robert A. Chesebrough.

1879 - Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Telephone Company of Europe.

1897 - "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time. It was at a ceremony where a statue of George Washington was unveiled.

1897 - Guglielmo Marconi made the first communication by wireless telegraph.

1904 - In St. Louis, the Olympic games were held. It was the first time for the games to be played in the U.S.

1913 - The Rockefeller Foundation was created by John D. Rockefeller with a gift of $100,000,000.

1935 - The Philippines ratified an independence agreement.

1940 - The Netherlands surrendered to Nazi Germany.

1942 - The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

1942 - "Lincoln Portrait" by Aaron Copland was performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

1942 - The British, while retreating from Burma, reached India.

1948 - Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independent State of Israel as British rule in in Palestine came to an end.

1955 - The Warsaw Pact, a Easter European mutual-defense treaty, was signed in Poland by eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union.

1961 - A bus carrying Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.

1969 - Jacqueline Susann’s second novel, "The Love Machine," was published by Simon and Schuster.

1973 - Skylab One was launched into orbit around Earth as the first U.S. manned space station.

1975 - U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia. About 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in the military operation.

1980 - U.S. President Carter inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services.

1985 - The first McDonald's restaurant became the first fast-food business museum. It is located in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1989 - The final episode of "Family Ties" aired.

1992 - Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev addressed members of the U.S. Congress, appealing to them to pass a bill to aid the people of the former Soviet Union.

1996 - A tornado hit 80 villages in nothern Bangladesh. More than 440 people were killed.

1998 - The Associated Press marked its 150th anniversary.

1998 - The final episode of the TV series "Seinfeld" aired after nine years on NBC.

1999 - North Korea returned the remains of six U.S. soldiers that had been killed during the Korean War.

1999 - Jess Marlow received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

May 15th

1602 - Cape Cod was discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold.

1614 - An aristocratic uprising in France ended with the treaty of St.Menehould.

1618 - Johannes Kepler discovered his harmonics law.

1702 - The War of Spanish Succession began.

1768 - Under the Treaty of Versailles, France purchased Corsica from Genoa.

1795 - Napoleon entered the Lombardian capital of Milan.

1849 - Neapolitan troops entered Palermo, and were in possession of Sicily.

1856 - Lyman Frank Baum, author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," was born.

1862 - The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1916 - U.S. Marines landed in Santo Domingo to quell civil disorder.

1918 - Regular airmail service between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, began under the direction of the Post Office Department, which later became the U.S. Postal Service.

1926 - Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth were forced down in Alaska after a four-day flight over an icecap. Ice had begun to form on the dirigible Norge.

1926 - The New York Rangers were officially granted a franchise in the NHL. The NHL also announced that Chicago and Detroit would be joining the league in November.

1930 - Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess.

1940 - Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the U.S.

1941 - Joe DiMaggio began his historic major league baseball hitting streak of 56 games.

1942 - Gasoline rationing began in the U.S. The limit was 3 gallons a week for nonessential vehicles.

1948 - Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon only hours after declaring its independence.

1951 - AT&T became the first corporation to have one million stockholders.

1957 - Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1958 - Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.

1963 - The last Project Mercury space flight was launched.

1964 - The Smothers Brothers, Dick and Tom, gave their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City.

1970 - U.S. President Nixon appointed America's first two female generals.

1970 - Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi, were killed when police opened fire during student protests.

1972 - Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, MD while campaigning for the U.S. presidency. Wallace was paralyzed by the shot.

1975 - The merchant ship U.S. Mayaguez was recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.

1980 - The first transcontinental balloon crossing of the United States took place.

1988 - Soviet forces began their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet forces had been there for more than eight years.

1990 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" was sold for $82.5 million. The sale set a new world record.

1997 - The Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir station.

1999 - The Russian parliament was unable a attain enough votes to impeach President Boris Yeltsin.

May 16th



1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, was crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

1527 - The Florentines drove out the "Medici" for a second time and Florence re-established a republic.

1532 - Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England.

1568 - Mary Queen of Scots fled to England.

1605 - Paul V became Pope.

1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France.

1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, died three days later.

1866 - The U.S. Congress eliminated the half dime coin and replaced it with the five cent piece, or nickel.

1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer. (3 cheers for Chuck!!!)

1868 - President Andrew Johnson was acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.

1910 - The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.

1918 - The Sedition Act was passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.

1919 - A US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft "NC-4", commanded by Albert Cushing Read, left Trepassey Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc as a saint.

1929 - In Hollywood, California the first Academy Awards were handed out.

1938 - A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia killed 35 people.

1943 - Holocaust: "The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising" was finally crushed by the Nazis.

1943 - World War II: "The Dambuster Raids" by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams, situated in the heavily industrialized Ruhr Valley, were succesfully completed.

1948 - Chaim Weizmann was elected as the first President of Israel.

1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demanded an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union. This ended a "Big Four" summit in Paris.

1966 - Two extremely influential rock albums were released on the same day: Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" and The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds".

1969 - Venera program: "Venera 5", a Soviet spaceprobe, landed on Venus.

1975 - India annexed Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.

1975 - Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1988 - A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that the addictive properties of nicotine were similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle "Endeavour" landed safely after a successful maiden voyage.

2002 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opened in cinemas.

2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premiered in London.

2005 - Kuwait permitted women's suffrage in a 35-23 vote in their Parliament.

Born this day:

1490 - Albert of Prussia, first duke of Prussia (d. 1568)

1611 - Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)

1678 - Andreas Silbermann, organ builder (d. 1734)

1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician (d. 1799)

1827 - Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect

1882 - Anne McCormick, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (d. 1954)

1891 - Richard Tauber, tenor (d. 1948)

1905 - Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)

1912 - Studs Terkel, writer

1913 - Woody Herman, American musician, band leader (d. 1987)

1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)

1919 - Gisela Uhlen, actress

1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player, coach (d. 1989)

1929 - Friedrich Nowottny, journalist

1931 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician

1936 - Karl Lehmann, German cardinal and theologian

1936 - Roy Hudd, British radio and television actor

1948 - Robert Fripp, guitarist

1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1987

1953 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor

1955 - Olga Korbut, gymnast

1955 - Jack Morris, baseball pitcher

1955 - Hazel O'Connor, British singer

1955 - Debra Winger, actress

1958 - Amp Fiddler, musician (P Funk)

1965 - Krist Novoselic, musician, former bassist for Nirvana

1966 - Janet Jackson, singer

1966 - Thurman Thomas, American football player

1969 - Steve Lewis, American athlete

1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player

1973 - Tori Spelling, actress

Died this day:

1620 - William Adams, English navigator and Japanese samurai (b.1564)

1703 - Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)

1782 - Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)

1891 - Ion C. Bratianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)

1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman sultan (b. 1861)

1944 - George Ade, author (b. 1866)

1953 - Django Reinhardt, jazz musician (b. 1910)

1955 - James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)

1957 - Eliot Ness, federal agent (b. 1903)

1984 - Andy Kaufman, comedian (b. 1949)

1984 - Irwin Shaw, author (b. 1913)

1985 - Margaret Hamilton, actress (b. 1902)

1988 - Charles Keeping, illustrator (b. 1924)

1990 - Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets (b. 1936)

1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., singer, actor, comedian (b. 1925)

2003 - Mark McCormack, sports business pioneer, founder of IMG

May 17

On this day in 1943, the Memphis Belle, one of a group of American bombers based in Britain, becomes the first B-17 to complete 25 missions over Europe.

May 18, 1980

At 8:32 a.m. PDT, Mount St. Helens, suffers a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness.

May 19th


1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail for North America.

1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after she was convicted of adultery.

1568 - After being defeated by the Protestants, Mary the Queen of Scots, fled to England where she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth.

1588 - The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon, bound for England.

1608 - The Protestant states formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.

1643 - Delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to form a confederation.

1643 - The French army defeated a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.

1796 - The first U.S. game law was approved. The measure called for penalties for hunting or destroying game within Indian territory.

1847 - The first English-style railroad coach was placed in service on the Fall River Line in Massachusetts.

1856 - U.S. Senator Charles Sumner spoke out against slavery.

1857 - The electric fire alarm system was patented by William F. Channing and Moses G. Farmer.

1858 - A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hameton executed unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.

1864 - The Union and Confederate armies launched thier last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania in Virginia.

1865 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by the Union Cavalry in Georgia.

1906 - The Federated Boys' Clubs, forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of America, were organized.

1911 - The first American criminal conviction that was based on fingerprint evidence occurred in New York City.

1912 - The Associated Advertising Clubs of America held its first convention in Dallas, TX.

1921 - The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.

1926 - Thomas Edison spoke on the radio for the first time.

1926 - Benito Mussolini announced that democracy was deceased. Rome became a fascist state.

1926 - In Damascus, Syria, French shells killed 600 people.

1928 - The first frog-jumping jubilee held in Calaveras County, CA.

1935 - T.E. Lawrence "Lawrence of Arabia" died from injuries in a motorcycle crash in England.

1935 - The National Football League (NFL) adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936.

1943 - Winston Churchill told the U.S. Congress that his country was pledging their full support in the war against Japan.

1958 - Canada and the U.S. formally established the North American Air Defense Command.

1962 - Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday" for U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The event was a fund-raiser at New York's Madison Square Garden.

1964 - The U.S. State Department reported that diplomats had found about 40 microphones planted in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

1967 - The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain that banned nuclear weapons from outer space.

1967 - U.S. planes bombed Hanoi for the first time.

1984 - The Edmonton Oilers won their first Stanley Cup. They defeated the New York Islanders in five games.

1989 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average passed 2,500 for the first time. The close for the day was 2,501.1.

1992 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the CBS sitcom "Murphy Brown" for having its title character decide to bear a child out of wedlock.

1992 - In Massapequa, NY, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded by Amy Fisher. Fisher was her husband Joey's teen-age lover.

1992 - The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibits Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises.

1993 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed about 3,500 (3,500.03) for the first time.

1998 - In Russia, strikes broke out over unpaid wages.

1998 - Bandits stole three of Rome's most important paintings from the National Gallery of Modern Art.

1999 - "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was released in the U.S. It set a new record for opening day sales at 28.5 million.

1999 - Rosie O'Donnell and Tom Selleck got into an uncomfortable verbal issue concerning gun control on O'Donnell's talk show.

2000 - The bones of the most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton went on display in Chicago.

2000 - Disney released the movie "Dinosaur."

2003 - It was announced that Worldcom Inc. would pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges over its $11 billion accounting scandal.

2003 - Hundreds of Albert Einstein's scientific papers, personal letters and humanist essays were make available on the Internet. Einstein had given the papers to the Hebrew Universtiy of Jerusalem in his will.

Birthdays

Johns Hopkins 1795
Sarah Peale 1800
Ho Chi Minh 1890
Bruce Bennett 1906
George Auld 1919
Malcolm X 1925
Jim Lehrer 1934
David Hartman 1935
James Fox 1939
Nancy Kwan 1939
Stephen Young 1939
Francis Scobee 1939
Mickey Newbury 1940
Nora Ephron 1941
Pete Townsend (The Who) 1945
David Helfgott 1947
Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) 1949
Grace Jones 1952
Joey Ramone (The Ramones) 1951
Phil Rudd (AC/DC) 1954
Steven Ford 1956
Martyn Ware (The Human League) 1956
Iain Harvie (Del Amitri) 1962
Jenny Berggren (Ace of Base) 1972
Kevin Garnett 1976
Eric Lloyd 1986

May 20th

0325 - The Ecumenical council was inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea, Asia Minor.

1303 - A peace treaty was signed between England and France over the town of Gascony.

1347 - Cola di Rienzo took the title of tribune in Rome.

1506 - In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.

1520 - Hernando Cortez defeated Spanish troops that had been sent to punish him in Mexico.

1690 - England passed the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.

1674 - John Sobieski became Poland’s first King.

1774 - Britain's Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior

1775 - North Carolina became the first colony to declare its independence.

1784 - The Peace of Versailles ended a war between France, England, and Holland.

1830 - The fountain pen was patented by H.D. Hyde.

1861 - North Carolina became the last state to secede from Union.

1861 - During the American Civil War, the capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, AL, to Richmond, VA.

1874 - Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.

1875 - The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established.

1899 - Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. The posted speed limit was 12 miles per hour.

1902 - The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ended.

1902 - Cuba gained its independence from Spain.

1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.

1926 - The U.S. Congress passed the Air Commerce Act. The act gave the Department of Commerce the right to license pilots and planes.

1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours.

1930 - The first airplane was catapulted from a dirigible.

1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.

1933 - "Charlie Chan" was heard for the final time on the NBC Blue radio network, after only six months on the air.

1939 - The first telecast over telephone wires was sent from Madison Square Garden to the NBC-TV studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The event was a bicycle race.

1939 - The first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean began with the take-off of the "Yankee Clipper" from Port Washington, New York.

1941 - Germany invaded Crete by air.

1942 - Japan completed the conquest of Burma.

1961 - A white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL. The event prompted the federal government to send U.S. marshals.

1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill.

1970 - 100,000 people marched in New York supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.

1978 - Mavis Hutchinson, at age 53, became the first woman to run across America. It took Hutchinson 69 days to run the 3,000 miles.

1980 - The submarine Nautilus was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

1982 - TV’s "Barney Miller" was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.

1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1300 mark for the first time. The Dow closed at 1304.88.

1990 - The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.

1993 - The final episode of "Cheers" was aired on NBC-TV.

1996 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that would protect homosexuals from discrimination.

1999 - At Heritage High School in Conyers, GA, a 15-year-old student shot and injured six students. He then surrendered to an assistant principal at the school.

May 21st



996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1674 - John Sobieski was elected by the nobility to be the King of Poland.

1856 - Lawrence, Kansas was captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.

1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces began laying siege to the Confederate controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.

1871 - French Government troops invaded the "Paris Commune" and engaged its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards had been killed and 38,000 arrested.

1879 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique, Chile, battle two Peruvian vessels in "The Battle of Iquique".

1881 - The American Red Cross was established by Clara Barton.

1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in England was officially opened by Queen Victoria, who then knighted its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.

1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry was executed by guillotine.

1904 - The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris.

1924 - Two University of Chicago students murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."

1927 - Charles Lindbergh touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1932 - Due to bad weather, Amelia Earhart landed her plane in a pasture at Derry, Northern Ireland. Although not her intended destination, this still made her the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa became the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.

1936 - Sada Abe was arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.

1941 - 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor became the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat. This was a "neutral ship sinking" as the US did not become involved in World War II until December of that year.

1945 - American screen legend Humphrey Bogart married actress Lauren Bacall.

1956 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll was nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.

1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declared martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots broke out.

1966 - In boxing, World Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay beat Henry Cooper in the sixth round at the Arsenal football ground, North London.

1979 - The "White Night" riots took place in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opened in theaters.

1981 - Pierre Mauroy became Prime Minister of France.

1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.

1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, a student suspended for bringing a gun to school, fires a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 and wounding 25 others. This after killing his parents at home. (But he was just a misunderstood boy.)

1998 - In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics were hit by a butyric acid attacker.

2000 - A chartered British Aerospace Jetstream 31 crashed near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, killing 19.

2003 - An earthquake hit northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.

2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbed Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.

2004 - Stanislav Petrov was awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.


Births:

427 BC- Plato, Influential Greek philosopher (d. 347 BC)

1471 - Albrecht Dürer, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1528)

1527 - King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)

1688 - Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)

1780 - Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist (d. 1845)

1844 - Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)

1860 - Willem Einthoven, inventor of electrocardiogram (d. 1927)

1898 - Armand Hammer, physician, entrepreneur, oil magnate, and art collector (d. 1990)

1901 - Horace Heidt, band leader (d. 1986)

1902 - Earl Averill, U.S. Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1983)

1902 - Marcel Lajos Breuer, architect (d. 1981)

1904 - Fats Waller, American jazz pianist (d. 1943)

1904 - Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)

1912 - Monty Stratton, Major League Baseball pitcher (d. 1982)

1916 - Harold Robbins, U.S. novelist (d. 1997)

1916 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch sprinter (d. 2002)

1917 - Raymond Burr, U.S. actor (d. 1993)

1921 - Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and human rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Prize (d. 1989)

1930 - Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia

1932 - Gabriele Wohmann, author

1941 - Martin Carthy, singer and guitarist

1945 - Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut

1948 - Leo Sayer, musician

1952 - Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud), American actor

1956 - Judge Reinhold, actor

1957 - Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress

1972 - The Notorious B.I.G., musician (d. 1997)

1978 - Briana Banks, actress

1984 - Phillip Gargiulo, American Artist


Deaths:

987 - King Louis V of France

1471 - King Henry VI of England, (date of death possibly 22 May) (b. 1421)

1542 - Hernando de Soto, explorer (b. c. 1496)

1639 - Tommaso Campanella, Dominican theologian, philosopher and poet (b. 1568)

1647 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet and historian (b. 1581)

1724 - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)

1786 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)

1790 - Thomas Warton, English poet (b. 1728)

1895 - Franz von Suppé, Croatian-Austrian composer (b. 1819)

1911 - Williamina Fleming, astronomer (b. 1857)

1935 - Jane Addams, social worker (b. 1860)

1952 - John Garfield, actor (b. 1913)

1965 - Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (b. 1882)

1970 - E. L. Grant Watson, author and biologist (b. 1885)

1988 - Sammy Davis, Sr., U.S. dancer

2000 - Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)

2000 - Barbara Cartland, romance novel author (b. 1901)

2002 - Niki de Saint Phalle, artist (b. 1930)

2003 - Frank D. White, governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas (b. 1933)

May 22nd

1246 - Henry Raspe was elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.

1455 - King Henry VI was taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.

1570 - Abraham Ortelius published the first modern atlas in Belgium.

1761 - In Philadelphia, the first life insurance policy was issued in the U.S.

1819 - The steamship Savannah became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

1841 - Henry Kennedy received a patent for the first reclining chair.

1849 - Abraham Lincoln received a patent for the floating dry dock.

1859 - The creator of "Sherlock Holmes," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born.

1868 - Near Marshfield, IN, The "Great Train Robbery" took place. The robbery was worth $96,000 in cash, gold and bonds to the seven members of the Reno gang.

1872 - The Amnesty Act restored civil rights to Southerners.

1882 - The U.S. formally recognized Korea.

1891 - The first public motion picture was given in Thomas Edison's lab.

1892 - Dr. Sheffield, a British dentist, invented the toothpaste tube.

1900 - The Associated Press was incorporated as a non-profit news cooperative in New York.

1900 - A. DeVilbiss, Jr. patented his pendulum-type computing scale.

1900 - Edwin S. Votey received a patent for the pianola (a pneumatic piano player). It could be attached to any piano.

1908 - The Wright brothers registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.

1939 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the "Pact of Steel."

1947 - The Truman Doctrine was enacted by the U.S. Congress to appropriate military and economic aid Turkey and Greece.

1955 - A scheduled dance to be headlined by Fats Domino was canceled by police in Bridgeport, Connecticut because "rock and roll dances might be featured."

1955 - Jack Benny did his last live network radio broadcast after a run of 23 years. He devoted his time fully to TV.

1967 - "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" premiered on PBS.

1967 - The final "To Tell the Truth" program was seen on CBS-TV.

1969 - A lunar module of Apollo 10 flew within nine miles of the moon's surface. The event was a rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

1972 - U.S. President Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Russia. He met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

1972 - The island Ceylon adopted a new constitution and became the republic of Sri Lanka.

1977 - Janet Guthrie set the fastest time of the second weekend of qualifying, becoming the first woman to earn a starting spot in the Indianapolis 500 since its inception in 1911.

1985 - Pete Rose passed Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.

1986 - Sylvester Stallone agreed to a 10-picture, six-year deal with United Artists. He signed for a reported $15 million for each film.

1990 - In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merged to become a single state known as the Republic of Yemen.

1990 - Microsoft released Windows 3.0.

1992 - Johnny Carson hosted NBC's "Tonight Show" for the last time. He had been host for 30 years.

1997 - Kelly Flinn, the U.S. Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge. She thereby avoided court-martial on charges of adultery, lying and disobeying an order.

1998 - Bolivia was hit with a series of powerful earthquakes. At least 18 were killed. The quakes ranged in magnitude from 5.9 to 6.8.

1998 - New information came to light about the June 1996 bombing that killed 19 American airmen. The information indicated that Saudi citizens had been responsible and not Iranians as once believed.

1998 - A federal judge said that Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury in Monica Lewinsky investigation concerning U.S. President Clinton.

1998 - Voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland turned out to cast ballots giving approval to a Northern Ireland peace accord.

2002 - Chandra Levy's remains were found in Washington, DC's Rock Creek Park. She was last seen on April 30, 2001. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.

2002 - In Birmingham, AL, a jury convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in the 1963 church bombing that killed four girls.

2002 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 583rd career home run. He tied Mark McGwire for fifth on the all-time list.

2003 - At the Colonial in Fort Worth, TX, Annika Sorentam became the first woman to play on the PGA tour in 58 years. She ended the day at 1-over par.

May 23rd

1430 - Joan of Arc was captured by Burgundians. She was then sold to the English.

1533 - Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void.

1618 - The Thirty Years War began when three opponents of the Reformation were thrown through a window.

1701 - In London, Captain William Kidd was hanged after being convicted of murder and piracy.

1785 - Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter that he had invented bifocals.

1788 - South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.

1827 - The first nursery school in the U.S. was established in New York City.

1846 - Arabella Mansfield (Belle Aurelia Babb) was born. She was the first woman in the U.S. to pass the bar exam, though she never used her law degree.

1873 - Canada's North West Mounted Police force was established. The organization's name was changed to Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.

1876 - Boston’s Joe Borden pitched the very first no-hitter in the history of the National League.

1879 - The first U.S. veterinary school was established by Iowa State University.

1895 - The New York Public Library was created with an agreement that combined the city's existing Astor and Lenox libraries.

1900 - Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney became the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, 37 years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.

1901 - American forces captured Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.

1908 - Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, WA.

1915 - During World War I, Italy joined the Allies as they declared war on Austria-Hungary.

1922 - The play "Abie's Irish Rose" opened in New York City.

1922 - "Daylight Saving Time" was debated in the first debate ever to be heard on radio in Washington, DC.

1926 - The French captured the Moroccan Rif capital.

1934 - In Bienville Parish, LA, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed by Texas Rangers. The bank robbers were riding in a stolen Ford Deluxe.

1937 - Industrialist John D. Rockefeller died.

1938 - "LIFE" magazine’s cover pictured Errol Flynn as a glamour boy.

1945 - In Luneburg Germany, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, committed suicide while imprisoned by the Allied forces.

1949 - The Republic of West Germany was established.

1960 - Israel announced the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

1962 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) agreed to transfer the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, CA. The team became the San Francisco Warriors (and later the Golden State Warriors).

1962 - Joe Pepitone of the New York Yankees set a major league baseball record by hitting two home runs in one inning.

1985 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh was sentenced to life in prison for trying to sell Stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.

1992 - In Lisbon, Portugal , the U.S. and four former Soviet republics signed an agreement to implement the START missile reduction treaty that had been agreed to by the Soviet Union before it was dissolved.

1994 - "Pulp Fiction" won the "Golden Palm" for best film at the 47th Cannes Film Festival.

1995 - The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was demolished.

1998 - British Protestants and Irish Catholics of Northern Ireland approved a peace accord.

1999 - In Kansas City, MO, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) died when he fell 90 feet while being lowered into a WWF wrestling ring. He was 33 years old.

1999 - Gerry Bloch, at age 81, became the oldest climber to scale El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He broke his own record that he set in 1986 when he was 68 years old.

May 24th

1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus published proof of a sun-centered solar system.

1607 - Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers found the colony of Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the coast of Virginia.

1610 - Sir Thomas Gates institutes "laws divine moral and marshal," a harsh civil code for Jamestown.

1624 - After years of unprofitable operation Virginia’s charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.

1689 - The English Parliament passed Act of Toleration, protecting Protestants. Roman Catholics were specifically excluded from exemption.

1738 - The Methodist Church was established.

1764 - Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation" and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britain’s new tax measures.

1798 - Believing that a French invasion of Ireland was imminent, Irish nationalists rose up against the British occupation.

1816 - Emamual Leutze was born in Germany. He was most famous for his paintings "Washington Crossing the Delaware" and "Columbus Before the Queen".

1822 - At the Battle of Pichincha, Bolivar secured independence of the Quito.

1830 - The first passenger railroad service in the U.S. began service.

1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse formally opened America's first telegraph line. The first message was sent from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD. The message was "What hath God wrought?"

1859 - Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria" was performed by Madame Caroline Miolan-Carvalho for the first time in public.

1863 - Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a U.S. Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.

1878 - The first American bicycle race was held in Boston.

1881 - About 200 people died when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London, Ontario.

1883 - After 14 years of construction the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to traffic.

1899 - The first public garage was opened by W.T. McCullough.

1913 - The U.S. Department of Labor entered into its first strike mediation. The dispute was between the Railroad Clerks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

1930 - Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly from England to Australia.

1931 - B&O Railroad began service with the first passenger train to have air conditioning throughout. The run was between New York City and Washington, DC.

1935 - The Cincinnati Reds played the Philadelphia Phillies in the first major league baseball game at night. The switch for the floodlights was thrown by President F.D. Roosevelt.

1941 - The HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic. Only three people survived.

1950 - ‘Sweetwater’ (Nat) Clifton’s contract was purchased by the New York Knicks. Sweetwater played for the Harlem Globetrotters and became the first black player in the NBA.

1954 - The first moving sidewalk in a railroad station was opened in Jersey City, NJ.

1958 - United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1961 - The Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.

1962 - The officials of the National Football League ruled that halftime of regular season games would be cut to 15 minutes.

1967 - California Governor Ronald Reagan greeted Charles M. Schulz at the state capitol in observance of the legislature-proclaimed "Charles Schulz Day."

1974 - The last "Dean Martin Show" was seen on NBC. The show had been aired for 9 years.

1976 - Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde service to Washington.

1980 - The International Court of Justice issued a final decision calling for the release of the hostages taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.

1983 - The Brooklyn Bridge's 100th birthday was celebrated.

1983 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the right to deny tax breaks to schools that racially discriminate.

1986 - Montreal won its 23rd National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup championship.

1990 - The Edmonton Oilers won their fifth National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup.

1993 - Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo and six other people were killed at the Guadalajara, Mexico, airport in a shootout that involved drug gangs.

1993 - The Ethiopian province of Eritrea declared itself an independent nation.

1994 - The four men convicted of bombing the New York's World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

1999 - 39 miners were killed in an underground gas explosion in the Ukraine.

2000 - Five people were killed and two others wounded when two gunmen entered a Wendy's restaurant in Flushing, Queens, New York. The gunmen tied up the victims in the basement and then shot them.

2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved permanent normal trade relations with China. China was not happy about some of the human rights conditions that had been attached by the U.S. lawmakers.

2000 - A Democratic Party event for Al Gore in Washington brought in $26.5 million. The amount set a new record, which had just been set the previous month by Republicans for Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

2001 - Temba Tsheri, 15, became the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

May 25th

585 BC - The first known prediction of a solar eclipse was made in Greece.

1085 - Alfonso VI took Toledo, Spain from the Moslems.

1787 - The Constitutional convention opened in Philadelphia with George Washington presiding.

1810 - Argentina declared independence from Napoleonic Spain.

1844 - The gasoline engine was patented by Stuart Perry.

1844 - The first telegraphed news dispatch, sent from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD, appeared in the Baltimore "Patriot."

1895 - Oscar Wilde, a playwright, poet and novelist, was convicted of a morals charge and sentenced to prison in London.

1895 - James P. Lee first published "Gold in America -- A Practical Manual."

1911 - President of Mexico, Porfolio Diaz, resigned his office.

1925 - John Scopes was indicted for teaching the Darwinian theory in school.

1927 - Ford Motor Company announced that the Model A would replace the Model T.

1927 - The "Movietone News" was shown for the first time at the Sam Harris Theatre in New York City.

1935 - Babe Ruth hit his final homerun, his 714th, and set a record that would stand for 39 years.

1935 - Jesse Owens tied the world record for the 100-yard dash. He ran it in 9.4 seconds. He also broke three other world track records.

1946 - Jordan gained independence from Britain.

1953 - In Nevada, the first atomic cannon was fired.

1961 - America was asked by U.S. President Kennedy to work toward putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

1963 - The Organization of African Unity was founded, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1968 - The Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, MO, was dedicated.

1970 - Boeing Computer Services was founded.

1977 - "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" opened and became the largest grossing film to date.

1977 - An opinion piece by Vietnam verteran Jan Scruggs appeared in "The Washington Post." The article called for a national memorial to "remind an ungrateful nation of what it has done to its sons" that had served in the Vietnam War.

1979 - An American Airlines DC-10 crashed during takeoff at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. 275 people were killed.

1981 - Daredevil Daniel Goodwin scaled Chicago's Sears Tower, while wearing a "Spiderman" costume, in 7 1/2 hours.

1983 - "The Return of the Jedi" opened nationwide. It set a new record in opening day box office sales. The gross was $6,219,629.

1985 - Bangladesh was hit with a hurricane and tidal wave that killed more than 11,000 people.

1986 - Approximately 7 million Americans participated in "Hands Across America."

1989 - The Calgary Flames won their first NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Montreal Canadiens.

1992 - Jay Leno debuted as the new permanent host of NBC's "Tonight Show."

1996 - In Nimes, France, Christina Sanchez became the first woman to achieve the rank of matadore in Europe.

1997 - In Sierra Leone a military coup overthrew the popularly elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He was replaced with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.

1997 - U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history (41 years and 10 months).

1997 - Poland adopted a constitution that removed all traces of communism.

1999 - A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China concluded that China had "stolen design information on the U.S. most-advanced thermonuclear weapons" and that China's penetration of U.S. weapons laboratories "spans at least the past several decades and almost certainly continues today."

2000 - The Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc. signed a long-term deal that ended a dispute over the airing policies of Time Warner. Time Warner had blacked out Disney programs for a 39 hour period the previous month due to the lack of an agreement.

2001 - Erik Weihenmeyer, 32, of Golder, CO, became the first blind climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

2001 - Sherman Bull, 64, of New Canaan, CT, became the oldest climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

May 26th

0017 - Germanicus of Rome celebrated his victory over the Germans.

1328 - William of Ockham was forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII.

1521 - Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings.

1647 - A new law banned Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty was banishment or death for a second offense.

1660 - King Charles II of England landed at Dover after being exiled for nine years.

1670 - A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending the hostilities between them.

1691 - Jacob Leiser, leader of the popular uprising in support of William and Mary’s accession to the English throne, was executed for treason.

1736 - The British and Chickasaw Indians defeated the French at the Battle of Ackia.

1791 - The French Assembly forced King Louis XVI to hand over the crown and state assets.

1805 - Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.

1831 - Russians defeated the Poles at battle of Ostrolenska.

1835 - A resolution was passed in the U.S. Congress stating that Congress has no authority over state slavery laws.

1836 - The U.S. House of Representatives adopted what has been called the Gag Rule.

1864 - The Territory of Montana was organized.

1865 - Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.

1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted, by one vote, of all charges in his impeachment trial.

1896 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average appeared for the first time in the "Wall Street Journal."

1896 - The last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, was crowned.

1908 - In Persia, the first oil strike was made in the Middle East.

1913 - Actors’ Equity Association was organized in New York City.

1926 - In Morocco, rebel leader Abd el Krim surrendered.

1937 - San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opened.

1938 - The House Committee on Un-American Activities began its work of searching for subversives in the United States.

1940 - The evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France, began during World War II.

1946 - A patent was filed in the United States for an H-bomb.

1946 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed a military pact with Russian leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin promised a "close collaboration after the war."

1948 - The U.S. Congress passed Public Law 557 which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as the Auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force.

1956 - The first trailer bank opened for business in Locust Grove, Long Island, NY. The 46-foot-long trailer took in $100,000 in deposits its first day.

1958 - Union Square, San Francisco became a state historical landmark.

1959 - The word "Frisbee" became a registered trademark of Wham-O.

1961 - Civil rights activist group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established in Atlanta, GA.

1961 - A U.S. Air Force bomber flew across the Atlantic in a record time of just over three hours.

1969 - The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.

1972 - The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) was signed by the U.S. and USSR. The short-term agreement put a freeze on the testing and deployment of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles for a 5-year period.

1973 - Kathy Schmidt set an American women’s javelin record with a throw of 207 feet, 10 inches.

1975 - American stuntman Evel Knievel suffered severe spinal injuries in Britain when he crashed while attempting to jump 13 buses in his car.

1977 - George H. Willig was arrested after he scaled the South Tower of New York's World Trade Center. It took him 3 1/2 hours.

1978 - The first legal casino in the Eastern U.S. opened in Atlantic City, NJ.

1988 - The Edmonton Oilers won their fourth NHL Stanley Cup in five seasons. They swept the series 4 games to 0 against the Boston Bruins.

1991 - A Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand, killing all 223 people aboard.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced that his administration would no longer link China's trade status with its human rights record.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island was mainly in New Jersey, not New York.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries only if their "actions shock the conscience."

1998 - The Grand Princess cruise ship made its inaugural cruise. The ship measured 109,000 tons and cost approximately $450 million, making it the largest and most expensive cruise ship ever built.

May 27th

1647 - Achsah Young, a resident of Windsor, CT, was executed for being a "witch." It was the first recorded American execution of a "witch."

1668 - Three colonists were expelled from Massachusetts for being Baptists.

1813 - Americans captured Fort George, Canada.

1896 - 255 people were killed in St. Louis, MO, when a tornado struck.

1901 - The Edison Storage Battery Company was organized.

1907 - The Bubonic Plague broke out in San Francisco.

1919 - A U.S. Navy seaplane completed the first transatlantic flight.

1926 - Bronze figures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were erected in Hannibal, MO.

1929 - Colonel Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Murrow were married.

1931 - Piccard and Knipfer made the first flight into the stratosphere, by balloon.

1933 - Walt Disney's "Three Little Pigs" was first released.

1933 - In the U.S., the Federal Securities Act was signed. The act required the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.

1935 - The U.S. Supreme Court declared that President Franklin Roosevelt's National Industrial Recovery Act was unconstitutional.

1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to the public. The bridge connected San Francisco and Marin County.

1941 - U.S. President Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency" amid rising world tensions.

1941 - The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by British naval and air forces. 2,300 people were killed.

1942 - German General Erwin Rommel began a major offensive in Libya with his Afrika Korps.

1944 - U.S. General MacArthur landed on Biak Island in New Guinea.

1960 - A military coup overthrew the democratic government of Turkey.

1964 - Indian Prime Minister Jawaharla Nehru died.

1968 - After 48 years as coach of the Chicago Bears, George Halas retired.

1969 - Construction of Walt Disney World began in Florida.

1977 - George H. Willig was fined for scaling the World Trade Center in New York on May 26. He was fined $1.10.

1985 - In Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification on the pact returning Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997.

1986 - Mel Fisher recovered a jar that contained 2,300 emeralds from the Spanish ship Atocha. The ship sank in the 17th century.

1994 - Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia. He had been in exile for two decades.

1995 - In Charlottesville, VA, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after being thrown from his horse during a jumping event.

1996 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin negotiated a cease-fire to the war in Chechnya in his first meeting with the leader of the rebels.

1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones could continue while President Clinton was in office.

1998 - Charlie Sheen was admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles for a drug overdose.

1998 - Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison for not warning anyone about the plot to bomb an Oklahoma City federal building.

1999 - In The Hague, Netherlands, a war crimes tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic and four others for atrocities in Kosovo. It was the first time that a sitting head of state had been charged with such a crime.

May 28th


585 BC - Thales Miletus predicted a solar eclipse.

585BC - The Persian-Lydian battle ended.

1533 - England's Archbishop declared the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.

1774 - The First Continental Congress convened in Virginia.

1805 - Napoleon was crowned in Milan, Italy.

1830 - The U.S. Congress authorized Indian removal from all states to western prairie.

1863 - The first black regiment left Boston to fight in the U.S. Civil War.

1892 - The Sierra club was organized in San Francisco, CA.

1900 - Britain annexed the Orange Free State.

1908 - Ian Fleming, who created the character James Bond, was born.

1918 - Azerbaijan, in Russian Caucasus, declared independence.

1926 - Portuguese General da Costa took over in a coup.

1928 - Chrysler Corporation merged with Dodge Brothers, Inc.

1929 - Warner Brothers debuted "On With The Show" in New York City. It was the first all-color-talking picture.

1934 - The Dionne quintuplets were born near Callender, Ontario, to Olivia and Elzire Dionne. The babies were the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

1937 - U.S. President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC, signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the newly opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.

1940 - During World War II, Belgium surrendered to Germany.

1953 - The Walt Disney film "Melody" premiered in the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood. The picture was the first 3-D cartoon.

1957 - National League club owners voted to allow the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to Los Angeles and that the New York Giants could move to San Francisco.

1961 - Amnesty International, a human rights organization, was founded.

1976 - The Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Treaty was signed, limiting any nuclear explosion - regardless of its purpose - to a yield of 150 kilotons.

1977 - Fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, KY. 165 people were killed.

1985 - The first issue of "Vanity Fair" magazine went on sale. The issue had a picture of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy smooching on the cover.

1985 - David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He was freed 17 months later.

1987 - Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow's Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. He was released August 3, 1988.

1995 - An earthquake in the Russian town Neftegorsk killed at least 2000 people. It had a magnitude of 7.5.

1996 - U.S. President Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal were convicted of fraud.

1998 - Pakistan matched India with five nuclear test blasts. The U.S., Japan and other nations imposed economic sanctions. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said "Today, we have settled the score with India."

1998 - Dr. Susan Terebey discoved a planet outside of our solar system with the use of photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

1998 - Phil Hartman was shot to death at his home by his wife, Brynn, who then killed herself.

1999 - In Milan, Italy, Leonardo de Vinci's "The Last Supper" was put back on display after 22 years of restoration work.

2002 - Russia became a limited partner in NATO with the creation of the NATO-Russia Council.

May 29th

1453 - Constantinople fell to Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire.

1660 - Charles II was restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth.

1721 - South Carolina was formally incorporated as a royal colony.

1765 - Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia's House of Burgesses.

1790 - Rhode Island became the last of the original thirteen colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1827 - The first nautical school opened in Nantucket, MA, under the name Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin’s Lancasterian School.

1848 - Wisconsin became the 30th united state.

1849 - A patent for lifting vessels was granted to Abraham Lincoln.

1910 - An airplane raced a train from Albany, NY, to New York City. The airplane pilot Glenn Curtiss won the $10,000 prize.

1911 - The first running of the Indianapolis 500 took place.

1912 - Fifteen women were dismissed from their jobs at the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, PA, for dancing the Turkey Trot while on the job.

1916 - The official flag of the president of the United States was adopted.

1916 - U.S. forces invaded Dominican Republic and remained until 1924.

1922 - Ecuador became independent.

1922 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that organized baseball was a sport, not subject to antitrust laws.

1932 - World War I veterans began arriving in Washington, DC. to demand cash bonuses they were not scheduled to receive for another 13 years.

1951 - C.F. Blair became the first man to fly over the North Pole in single engine plane.

1953 - Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became first men to reach the top of Mount Everest.

1962 - Buck (John) O’Neil became the first black coach in major league baseball when he accepted the job with the Chicago Cubs.

1965 - Ralph Boston set a world record in the broad jump at 27-feet, 4-3/4 inches, at a meet held in Modesto, CA.

1973 - Tom Bradley was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon agreed to turn over 1,200 pages of edited Watergate transcripts.

1978 - In the U.S., postage stamps were raised from 13 cents to 15 cents.

1985 - 39 people were killed and 400 were injured in a riot at a European Cup soccer match in Brussels, Belgium.

1988 - U.S. President Reagan began his first visit to the Soviet Union in Moscow.

1988 - NBC aired "To Heal A Nation," the story of Jan Scruggs' effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1990 - Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian republic by the Russian parliament.

1995 - The last 3 bodies were recovered from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

1997 - The ruling party in Indonesia, Golkar, won the Parliament election by a record margin. There was a boycott movement and rioting that killed 200 people.

1999 - Space shuttle Discovery completed the first docking with the International Space Station.

2000 - Fiji's military took control of the nation and declared martial law following a coup attempt by indigenous Fijians in mid-May.

2001 - In New York, four followers of Osama bin Laden were convicted of a global conspiracy to murder Americans. The crimes included the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.

2001 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that disabled golfer Casey Martin could use a cart to ride in tournaments.

May 30th

1416 - Jerome of Prague was burned as a heretic by the Church.

1431 - Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at the age of 19.

1527 - The University of Marburg was founded in Germany.

1539 - Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer, landed in Florida with 600 soldiers to search for gold.

1783 - The first daily newspaper was published in the U.S. by Benjamin Towner called "The Pennsylvania Evening Post"

1814 - The First Treaty of Paris was declared, which returned France to its 1792 borders.

1848 - W.G. Young patented the ice cream freezer.

1854 - The U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.

1868 - Memorial Day was observed for the first time in the U.S.

1879 - William Vanderbilt renamed New York City's Gilmore’s Garden to Madison Square Garden.

1883 - Twelve people were trampled to death in New York City in a stampede when a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing occurred.

1889 - The brassiere was invented.

1896 - The first automobile accident occurred in New York City.

1903 - In Riverdale, NY, the first American motorcycle hill climb was held.

1911 - Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis Sweepstakes. The 500-mile auto race later became known as the Indianapolis 500. Harroun's average speed was 74.59 miles per hour.

1912 - The U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to protect American interests.

1913 - The First Balkan War ended.

1921 - The U.S. Navy transferred the Teapot Dome oil reserves to the Department of the Interior.

1922 - The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

1933 - Sally Rand introduced her exotic and erotic fan dance to audiences at Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition.

1943 - American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.

1958 - Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflicts were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

1967 - Daredevil Evel Knievel jumped 16 automobiles in a row in a motorcycle stunt at Ascot Speedway in Gardena, CA.

1967 - The state of Biafra seceded from Nigeria and Civil war erupted.

1971 - Mariner 9, the American deep space probe blasted off on a journey to Mars.

1982 - Spain became the 16th NATO member. Spain was the first country to enter the Western alliance since West Germany in 1955.

1989 - The "Goddess of Democracy" statue (33 feet height) was erected in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1996 - Britain's Prince Andrew and the former Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage.

1997 - Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, NJ, of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994 murder inspired "Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.

1998 - A powerful earthquake hit northern Afghanistan killing up to 5,000.

2003 - Peter Jenning was sworn in as a U.S. citizen.